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Open Source
Tool Comparison
Falco
Real-time threat detection for containers and Kubernetes using system calls.
VS
At a Glance
| Attribute | Falco | Aqua Security |
|---|---|---|
| License / Pricing | Open Source | Licensed |
| Type | DevOps | DevOps |
| GitHub Stars | — | — |
| Rating | 4.4/5 | 4.2/5 |
| Key Features | 6 listed | 6 listed |
| Integrations | 5 listed | 6 listed |
| Categories | SecurityKubernetes-tools | SecurityContainer Security |
Key Features
Falco
- Kernel-level syscall visibility using eBPF for deep runtime inspection
- Pre-built detection rules for MITRE ATT&CK cloud techniques
- Custom rules in YAML for organisation-specific threat detection
- Alerts routed to Slack, PagerDuty, Elasticsearch, and more via Falcosidekick
- Kubernetes audit log analysis for API server event detection
- Low-overhead eBPF probe for production-safe deployment
Aqua Security
- Image scanning for vulnerabilities, malware, and misconfigurations
- Runtime security with eBPF-based threat detection (built on Tracee)
- Kubernetes security posture management (KSPM)
- Infrastructure-as-code scanning for Terraform, CloudFormation, and Kubernetes
- Software Supply Chain Security: SBOM, signed images, and pipeline integrity
- Trivy open-source scanner is part of the Aqua ecosystem
Real-World Use Cases
Falco
Detecting container escape attempts
Deploy Falco as a DaemonSet with the eBPF probe on all Kubernetes nodes
Monitoring Kubernetes API server activity
Enable Kubernetes audit log forwarding to Falco
Aqua Security
Shift-left security in the CI/CD pipeline
Integrate the Aqua scanner into the CI pipeline after the Docker build
Runtime protection for Kubernetes workloads
Deploy the Aqua enforcer as a DaemonSet on all Kubernetes nodes
Integrations
Falco
kubernetestrivyelastic-observabilitydatadogprometheus
Aqua Security
kubernetestrivydockerjenkinsgithub-actionsgitlab-ci-cd
🏆 Which should you choose?
Choose Falco if…
- → you need a fully open-source, self-hosted solution with no vendor lock-in
Choose Aqua Security if…
- → you want a managed or commercial offering with enterprise support and SLAs